Ghost Stories

Gritty Heroic Paranormal Noir

Spiritual Tides

As Ren was rushed to the hospital for being thoroughly and unmercifully stabbed, the others cleaned up and followed along at a distance. She was admitted with two punctured lungs, a fractured breastbone and a fileted spleen.

The rest of the team rested in beds acquired for them by Bob Chen who happened to own a wing in this hospital. While they rested Ren found herself in surgery.

In the state drifting between life and death, she found herself on the beach of the San Francisco coast, nothing in sight due dense fog but the endless beach, the grey turbulent sea, and the rock fortress of Alcatraz.

It was on this void beach (while she looked at the tide in terror) that she noticed the presence of another. She had skin of mocha and not a scrap of clothing, saving the talismans and trinkets in her hair and the piercing on sensitive parts of her body.

She offered salvation from death by Calypso, the Loa goddess of the Sea. Ren, hesitant but unwilling to die, accepted. It was sealed with a handshake, during which the woman’s hand turned into a black viper and sunk her fangs in the young martial artist. But instead of pumping venom into her, it seemed to be pulling a poison out.

Then the mocha women and her dream state fell into nothing and she woke up feeling significantly better, but bearing a tattoo of a black and white serpent intertwined but facing opposite directions.

Her companions met her as she awoke and stared warily at the tattoo, though Ethan disarmed the nurse’s curiosity. They checked out, saying goodbye to Narcissa, who smiled that knowing smile as they left.

They stopped by a taco stand in the barrio so Ethan could get tacos for breakfast. While the conversation appeared mundane (though it did include ammo and really illegal weaponry) it was actually a more subtle form of Ethan plying a contact of his: the Ajk’ij, a group of meso-american smugglers.

After efforts to get assistance in getting the back-up statues back to San Francisco turned unclear, the group headed off following the delivery truck eating authentic mexican tacos, burritos and ceviche.

The trip out to the napa vineyards was long and uneventful and the truck pulled up a long drive and in front of a large colonial ranch house with tile roofs and rustic stucco on the walls, intricate stonework and rich wooden covered decks.

Standing on the poor, smoking a cigar and having a glass of something presumably harder than iced tea was a fit looking chinese man. He wore light grey slacks, a white suit and jacket, at odds with his bright red cowboy boots and string-tie bolo, which was further set at odds by his designer sunglasses.

He pressed a button on his watch and the garage door opened, revealing the cause of their journey. In the dark, musty garage that stored relics of the past were two man-sized statues; one black with the head of an ox and a giant spear, and one white with the head of a horse and a massive axe. The Hebei Wuchang, Impertinent Guardian of Good and Evil.

Kuroto Ashigama, The Bloody Blade

Our heroes stood off against the well dressed Japanese man with the ancient blood-caked sword, with a few hapless triad enforcers in the middle and one crooked cop.

Emmet and Ren acted instantly after the man teleported into the mix of the Triad. Ren closed the distance and Emmet unloaded one barrel of his trusty second wife, Clara. The dapper swordsman dodged the buckshot and grinned.

The stranger drew his sword and said in Japanese “Cry, Ryuujinshin” and a palpable aura of despair, terror, and pure unfettered malice covered the courtyard, causing fear and panic to freeze their joints and stop them from moving. Then with a flick of his blade he lightly slashed one of the triad members, but barely nicking him through his jacket. All at once the fool fell to the ground shrieking in absolute terror, voiding his bowels and gibbering into the fetal position.

Katsukira moved close, into melee range while Det. Bo Hong and the Triad goons remained frozen in terror save for one who managed to draw his extendable baton and crack it over the swordsman’s arm. In an instant, the swordsman’s blade flashed out and severed the man’s arm, cleaving further through his chest and out his neck, the blade singing with the fresh blood.

Ethan, gritted himself, seeing the lethalness of his opponent drew his .38 special and snapped off a shot into the deadly warrior. The shot pierced his shoulder with a metallic ting and a gush of blood, drawing the ire of the warrior.

Ethan fired a second shot, going wide again as the dapper swordsman ducked and dashed across to bring himself into range with Emmett, and slashing with his sword, missing emmet by a hair’s breath. However, Ren was paralyzed by the wicked fierce fear in her mind, instilled by the murderous sword. This however brought epiphany of the The Cult of Ryuujinshinn, a brutal organization of savage warriors that worship the dark yokai inhabiting the sword Ryuujinshinn.

Katsukira closed the distance again, fighting off the dark despair and attempted to shatter the dark soulrending power of the blade. However, upon trying to impose her will on the blade, she found the dark force too immense to quell with her training.

Ethan took aim with his .38 special and squeezed off another shot, but not before focussing on his current strongest desire of plugging this guy; a surefire way for his cursed existence to ensure that it did not happen
“I’d move Emmett,” he said grimly, “It’s a bad night for a curse.”
With the dark and malevolent spirits constantly surrounding him whipped into a frenzy, the bullet went wide but all the other attacks would too.

Emmet finally got his bearings, reloading Clara, snapping the breach shut and firing dead center into the warrior’s chest. The rocksalt slammed into his chest leaving him with a stunned and worried expression, as if to say Why rocksalt? If that were buckshot…
Even as this stunned expression crossed his face, his blade shimmered and hum and lashed out, catching Emmet’s coat, but thanks to the rampaging curse, not Emmet.
Then came the backslash, which nicked Emmet’s left shoulder. As the blade broke his flesh a tidal wave of malice, hate, envy, despair, and terror went rampaging through Emmett, the shear weight of the dark emotion threatening to tear Emmett’s mind to pieces, ripping it apart at the seams. He screamed and fell to one knee, his mind reeling.
With a satisfied grin, the warrior moved into melee range with Ethan, practically stalking him. His blade was vibrating once again, ready for blood.

Hong and the Triad goons stayed paralyzed as Katsukira moved up next to Ethan and used her last Ofuda tag to erect a spirit barrier to keep the monstrous warrior at bay. Faced with the odds, Ethan took the long shot, dropping his gun and drawing the sword of Hyundai-Sama, which flashed in the midnight as though being drawn in the sun. He took his best stance and prepared to face the wielder of Ryuujinshinn.

At this point Ren realized that growing up in the cult, Ryuujinshinn’s wielder would be enticed by such an offer and would fight with as of yet seen force. After saying as much, Ethan glowered at her and said,
“I wouldn’t have to if you would do what you say you are good at!”
With a surge of adrenaline and power, Ren rushed across the battlefield, swords drawn and leapt into the air, rolling and flipping before thrusting the blade through the warrior’s chest and out the other side.

Blood spilled from the warrior’s mouth as his lungs and heart and heart pounded in his chest and out of the gaping wound. However, in an instant the blade vibrated and flashed around in a reverse grip, stabbing into Ren’s side and coming out the other, puncturing a lung and shredding her spleen, bleeding pouring down the blade and into the ground.
Wheezing from the gaping chest wound, the warrior with incredible willpower, pushed the blade back through his chest while withdrawing his blade from the young martial artist. Ren dropped to the concrete with a sickening bloody thud and Ryuujinshinn’s wielder staggered back.
“You fools,” he wheezed, mouth filled with blood, “You brought this on yourself.”
Then he tripped into a shadow and vanished into it, disappearing.

With him gone, the despair curse was broken and the triad and Hong could move again. Ethan barked at Hong and the disgraced officer ran to aid the dying youth. With the immediate threat gone and Ren being patched up, Emmet went to check on the temple inside and the hebei wuchang statue.

However, just as he walked in the temple doors, there was a sudden explosion. Upon investigation, the statues where destroyed, exploded like the rest. They released the monks and the unconscious Det. Ichiro Chang. Chang convinced Hong to tell them who had blown up the temple, revealing that it was Huang Jiang the Triad head in San Francisco. Chang got Ethan’s card and Ethan got into his car with Emmet and headed to the hospital to check on Ren and meet with Bob Chen.

At the hospital bob related that the japanese assassin was Koruto Ashigama, the Bloody Blade and that things were worse than they seemed. Fortunately, Bob had a backup plan. He was having a pair of heibei wuchang brought in from a friend of the family’s estate in Napa valley. The truck was leaving San Francisco at 10am, take 3 hours to get to the estate, arriving at 1pm. Loading the large delicate statues would take an hour, so it would leave at 2pm and make it back to San Francisco by 5pm and installed in the temple grounds by 6pm; just in time for the Ghost Festival.

However, Chen wasn’t sure that the shipment would be unmolested, so asked his ‘retainers’ to look after it, including Ren if she was fit. So it was that the team was going on a road trip.

Triad or Yakuza?

Our heroes investigated the temple after acquiring their anti-explosive, only to find that Det. Bo Hong of the SFPD Organized Crime division was in the temple preparing for the vandalism that was going to happen that night. He told Ren and Katsukira (the two who had entered to check things out) that he police had it handled and they needed to go home.

Emmet meanwhile snuck around back to be the man inside. While he made it into the garden, he was unable to get into the actually temple or in sight of the Heibei Wuchang due to the monks’ cautious actions.

Ethan, on stakeout duty, say a black audi drive around the block.

After being told to leave the temple and go home, the girls instead walked the perimeter of the mighty temples outer walls, leaving Ofuda tags to try and scare off whatever terrible thing was coming that night. The girls were subsequently accosted by one Det. Ichiro Chang, also SFPD Organized Crime and Det. Hong’s partner.

After some philosophical debate, Det. Chang escorted the girls around the doors and windows until the tags were in place and told them to go home, like he was planning too. However, after the girls hitched a ride with Ethan, he didn’t go home, instead going inside help his partner in case something went down.

Ethan saw the black audi again.

At eleven the monks turned in, which was usual for them, having been told by Det. Hong to act like nothing was wrong. When the gong sounded at 1145 the black audi pulled up and out tossed four business casual young asian men, with the look of thugs in suits. They had tec-9s and expandable batons and looked ready for blood. A fat sweaty man that looked like the boss got out last, his emotions running a wide and very nearly insane gammutt.

Emmet snuck to the front, followed by Ethan and the girls snuck in from behind. However, the plan was interrupted by them meeting with Det. Hong in a very civil fashion. Emmet blasted his shotgun to distract them from the girls and the fat one dove inside while the rest scattered, save Hong, who pulled out a non-police issue Desert Eagle handgun.

After a stirring discussion, it was revealed that the asian men were not the Yakuza, but the Triad instead. Hong decided he could no longer afford to arrest Emmet but instead had to kill him. But before any more revelations could be made, all present felt a tense drawing sensation, like fishing line – complete with razor sharp hooks – was being drawn over their skin, letting them know of the danger and terror coming. Acting on instinct, Emmet loading his shotgun with rocksalt.

Walking up the steps was a man of slight build, in an immaculate black 3 piece suit with a red tie. He wore white gloves and had on a short top hat, with long black hair streaming under his hat. In his left hand was a katana, the scabbard ancient and battered, the guard equally ancient and tarnished by blood and rust, and the wrap at the hilt in tatters from bloody use.

He was stopped by Katsukira’s barrier which emboldened the Triad goons to fire a hail of bullets. But being normal humans, they could not see the barrier shatter like she did at the mere breaking of the seal on the katana.

In a step through inky blackness, the anachronistic man dodged the hail of bullets and was next seen in their midst, his stance prepared to strike down one or more of their number. Emmet screamed for them to get down and brought Clara to bear…

Old Sparky

Still investigating the damage done at the local temples in Chinatown, the separate parts of our investigative team check on different elements.

Ethan uses his eerily accurate Ouija board to commune with the spirit that was supposed to be Mr Fuji. The spirit had little to say but it was important. It spelled J-I-G-O-K-U in response to where Mr Fuji was and T-A-K-E-N for how. And finally when he asked who was doing it and why the TV fired into life and flipped through the TV stations until it landed on a martial arts flick, freezing the screen on the word ‘YAKUZA’ and distorting all images but the enigmatic word before the TV blew out.

Emmet investigated the injured individuals, dressing in Army dress uniform and sneaking in with a very gullible young nurse, Rosalee. He discovered that the victims had gone mad from pain and hyperphobia – the experience of mild fears becoming cripplingly extreme. Two of the victims had slipped into a coma, putting three in comas and two in intensive care.

The girls, Katsukira and Ren, talked with the the monk at the first victimized temple. The church doors were broken, blown off of their hinges, like exhausted sentinels. The statues of the hebei wuchang were destroyed, exploded with shrapnel in the walls and bullets.

The group met back up at the next temple, where they met a group of well dressed thugs. In a spur of strange luck, the group recognized Katsukira as a priestess and asked for her aid. When the de-facto leader balked at the idea, the thick bodied Jigo Takata took over, confiding in the priestess for their problems, discussing in hushed, quiet voices, one Kuruto Ryuujin. While they talked, Ethan took pictures of the explosion, planning on seeking ‘professional aid’.

Their travels in Ethan’s Buick LeSabre took then down to the wharf and the Alcatraz Bar and pub. In the Alcatraz, Katsukira and Ethan met a man by the name of ‘Old Sparky’, a survival nut and spoke with the old man about the bombs on the statues and how to disarm them. Earning some useful information from the simple but intelligent hillfolk.

Meanwhile, in the parking lot Emmet got a call from someone known only as the G-man, who told Emmet in a halting, jolting voice not to stop the destruction of the statues, but to let it go for balances sake.

Now they have to be at the Wu Jei Dai temple off of 12th street by midnight to stop the desecration of this last temple bearing the hebei wujang statues in Chinatown.

The Restless Dead

San Francisco, the city on the Bay and home to the largest population of Chinese immigrants in at least the United States. Does not rest easy. Our heroes have been on high alert as the level of supernatural occurrences and freak hauntings have been on the rise. In the early afternoon Mr Bob Chen – a legacy real estate and will and testament lawyer – called on the help of 4 unique individuals:

Ethan Humphries, a hard-boiled PI that has more than meets the eyes going on.

Emmett Caine, a long time monster hunter with little patience or manners, but a steely gaze and a loving wife, Jing.

Ren Arina, a youth with fire in her soul and Iron in her fist, with a dash of extrasensory perception.

And Katsukira Yomimiru, a young Yuta priestess on her own in Chinatown.

These four were gathered by Mr Chen to settle a problem he was having. He had clients whose temples were being vandalized. Normal vandalizing claims wouldn’t require such a crack team of Investigators and indeed these were no mere vandals. The vandals were destroying the statues of the the heibei wuchang; The Black and White Guardians of Impermanence that watch of the spirits of the good and wicked, making sure they go back to their final reward after their visit is done.

Mr Chen is worried that more of his clients’ property will be damaged, especially as the Yakuza have been making a bid for power in Chinatown and are coming into direct confrontation with the local Triad enforcers. People at the sites of the vandalism are winding up injured superficially, but incapacitated by a crippling Hyperphobia or super fear.

Emmett goes to talk to the – now deemed insane – victims, while Katsukira and Ren check out the local temples that have been vandalized, looking for clues. The hardboiled Ethan tries to contact an old friend, but gets a secretary asking if he can “take a mesage” which sets Ethan on edge. And so the Heibang Wuchang Mystery rapidly unfolds, preparing for dramatic twists and frightful turns.

A blog for your campaign

Ok chummers, this is pretty standard, just a quick introduction to the adventure log you guys are gonna reference to see what is important in your adventures. Don’t forget to check your wiki or the character page (and of course here if you need a refresher) for what little info you can gather on the forces at work.

So with no more fucking around….

Every campaign gets an Adventure Log, a blog for your adventures!

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.